International competitions: Russia a spectator, even for the Olympics?
A Russian flag above the Olympic rings during the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.
AP - David J. Phillip
Text by: Anissa El Jabri Follow
4 mins
Russian athletes have been banned for almost a year from almost all international competitions, but for the Paris Olympics, the debate is still open.
Faced with calls from Kiev, Moscow on Saturday denounced the call to ban its athletes from the 2024 Olympics as "
absolutely unacceptable
".
In Russia, the departure of the big international brands and the boycott mark the spirits in any case.
Advertisement
Read more
From our correspondent in Moscow,
Who is the first ?
Who is the best ?
More than a classic and recurring question, competition is almost a way of life in Russia.
Especially when it comes to sports.
But since the departure of the big international brands, providing equipment has become a headache, deplore many athletes.
Ice skates?
The price doubled, from 40,000 to 80,000 rubles.
Warm ski pants for winter training?
Here too, we rub our eyes at the labels: from 2,000 rubles to 3,500. From running shoes to equipment for ice hockey, the list of equipment that has become almost overpriced is long.
And according to some, in terms of quality, the account is not there.
For Ekaterina Udachnaya, who lives in Saint Petersburg, hockey is a passion.
His 14-year-old son has been playing there for ten years.
She herself has been running an online magazine for seven years to popularize this sport among children.
It's all about workouts, events...and equipment advice.
For her, as for many families, the bill has increased considerably this year.
And again, sports equipment is relatively available in this discipline, she explains: Russia has enormously developed in this field – as in many others – so-called “parallel” imports, ie imports via third countries.
A painful moult
The ranks of the clubs have however seriously thinned out, says Ekaterina Udachnaya.
Many children have gone to play and train abroad, “
to Central Asia, Europe and America
”.
“
Even our closest partners have stopped coming to us, our friends from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan
,” she adds with a cracking voice.
Rita doesn't overwhelm anyone.
"
What else were parents supposed to do?"
Of course children should be able to do what they love
.
However, the blonde and smiling mother does not understand the exclusion of Russian athletes from competitions: “
I think that in general, in principle, boycotting a country is something very strange.
The sport should be able to develop.
Sporting relations should in no way be influenced by anything
”.
For competitive sport, shedding is also often painful.
Whether it's skating or cross-country skiing, Russia has for the first time this winter gone from a major competitor to an isolated commentator on the sidelines.
"
Rather curious things are happening in this biathlon competition
", commented the daily Kommersant last week, when the World Cup had just started in Germany.
In this sport where the Russians often shine, the domination of the usual rivals like the Norwegians is now almost unchallenged, explains the newspaper.
An important issue
Top athletes are divided.
When multi-award-winning tennis players and footballers had loudly opposed the sending of Russian soldiers to Ukraine from the first days, other recent Olympic medalists had come out alongside Vladimir Putin.
It was on March 18, during a big meeting organized at the legendary Luzhniki stadium in Moscow.
Nearly 100,000 people turned out at the call of a slogan that left no room for doubt: "
For a world without Nazism!"
For Russia!
For the president!
".
Like sportsmen under the Soviet Union, they represent an important stake for power.
As proof, this decision announced the day after Russia's exclusion from the Paralympic Games in Beijing: on March 5, 2022 the Ministry of Sports announced an alternative sports competition with the assistance of Armenia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
Russia topped the rankings.
Since then, there has been talk of a continental football league or even the Eurasian Games... Without result.
The reconstruction of the new geopolitical order that Russia dreams of also applies to sport.
He has not yet found a concretization.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
Russia
Olympics 2024
Ukraine
our selection